


Brutality

by SLWalker



Series: Arch to the Sky [13]
Category: due South
Genre: Arch to the Sky, Gen, Implied Violence, Regina (1990-1991)
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2011-07-31
Updated: 2011-07-31
Packaged: 2017-10-22 01:06:57
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 282
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/231964
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/SLWalker/pseuds/SLWalker
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>1991: One snapshot in time, looking at the repercussions of stepping up.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Brutality

His wrist was throbbing.

Both had been painful enough to keep him semi-conscious when he was exhausted enough to sleep more deeply. Speedcuffing practice was brutality incarnate; Hawthorne had taken a sadistic glee in having the cuffs two or three notches in versus one, and the bruises would doubtless linger for weeks. It was a small mercy that bone hadn't been chipped or broken outright. But Turnbull didn't give into the urge to return the favor; it would have done little good. He already knew that. He had just picked up some snow, packed it against the already-coloring skin and kept double-timing it to his next class.

Now, he stared down at the angry red and purple discoloration, entirely too aware of the panic coursing through his veins, and utterly unaware of the tears running unchecked down his face. He didn't dare make a sound. Just sat in trembling silence, feeling the rapid beat of his heart in the throbbing of his wrist, a fixed stare at vicious bruises.

He had never, in his life, been so grateful for pain. He had never, in his life, felt so terrified. And somewhere, deep down, he had never felt so angry at 'the way things are' as he was in this moment. He didn't want to know what would have -- could have -- happened to him had he not been semi-aware and able to defend himself; he didn't let himself imagine, and even what he didn't imagine left him cold and sick.

It would be months later, in the quiet of Nipawin, before he stopped feeling the phantom ache in his wrist and was able to sleep a full night without waking up in panic.


End file.
